Students Help Broadway Restaurant

Light rail along Broadway will bring
more people and energy to Capitol
Hill, yet weathering six years of
construction for the tunnel and
new transit station won't be easy for retailers.

That's why Stacey Hettinger, co-owner
of table219, a small family restaurant at
219 Broadway East, welcomed consultation
from Seattle University students in the
Albers School of Business and Economics.

Funded by Sound Transit, Capitol Hill
Chamber of Commerce and the Broadway
Business Improvement Area, the Business
Technical Assistance program offers growth
strategies for retailers directly impacted by
the light rail construction project.

“I saw it as a
win-win. It gives
us some new ideas
as we prepare for
what’s ahead and
it gives students
an opportunity
to work on a
community project.”
- Stacey Hettinger, table219

"I saw it as a win-win," says Hettinger.
"It gives us some new ideas as we prepare
for what's ahead and it gives students an opportunity
to work on a community project."

For Swati Gulati, who completed her
MBA in June, and Cara Peterman, who
just finished the last class for her MBA,
table219 provided a fresh challenge. Both
were students in a class called New Venture
Consulting last spring.

Gulati, a software development engineer
at Microsoft, says their recommendations
had to align with table219's customer preferences,
industry practices and business
model.

"To come up with some fruitful recommendations,
we analyzed all three components
and proposed an actionable and
reasonable plan," Gulati says.

"We had to conduct market analysis and
understand table219's business strategy to
develop a creative marketing plan to help
achieve its goals of mitigating the impact of
Sound Transit construction while increasing
dinner revenues," says Peterman, a
senior financial analyst at Puget Sound
Energy in Bellevue.

The pair discovered 81 percent of Capitol
Hill's residents are single, so they suggested
more menu options to appeal to this
demographic as well as a to-go menu aimed
at the neighborhood's youthful population.
The student consultants also created
a restaurant index of similar dining options
in the area. "They gave us mind-boggling
demographics," says Hettinger.

Hettinger hopes to implement several
of their recommendations for table219's
website and is encouraged to try new promotions
this fall. She has a few surprises
planned, among them a way to inform
customers about what's ahead.

For more details about the Business
Technical Assistance program, contact
Greg Scully, Albers corporate relationships
manager, at (206) 427-8575 or e-mail
scullyg@seattleu.edu.